Liverpool ! PAUL MCCARTNEY & James Corden posted on You Tube !!

That Carpool Karaoke blew all of the others out of the water! I sat there last night grinning like an idiot the whole time. Hell, it was even mentioned on the evening national news tonight.

Paul is awesome.
And now we know what a tour of Liverpool should look like :)

Yeah yeah yeah best ever. Thanks James and Paul
Aloha

Or as Paul's dad would've suggested, Yes! Yes! Yes! Best Ever. Wonder if the woman now living in his boyhood home had known that it had been the McCartney home, and that Paul used the loo as his echo chamber for rehearsing and getting better sound? And does the City of Liverpool levy any fines on people writing on street signs? Wonder if it will now remain affixed to the wall? The guy's still very much Got It, although it was ironic seeing a 76-year-old singing "When I'm 64 . . . "

Yes, Cyn, as Emma says, the childhood homes of both John and Paul are now owned and operated by the National Trust; they are no longer private homes, although all the other ones next to theirs are. However, since they are in residential areas, access is quite limited.

If you want to go inside (and if you're headed to Liverpool, trust me you do) then you must book a tour through the Trust. There are only four tours a day and each tour only allows about 12 people, so advance booking is necessary. Other tours pass by the outsides, but this is the only way to get inside. https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/beatles-childhood-homes

You not only see the homes themselves, you learn how people lived in this time and place. Most fascinating thing I hadn't read about elsewhere, that I learned by going: these homes are in very suburban areas, and are actually closer to the airport than the city center (since it's UK, make that centre). Even today, they feel very removed from central urban Liverpool; I can only imagine it was far more so 60 years ago, when they were growing up there.

I'm guessing that now that it's been on James Corden's show, tickets for the National Trust tour will be even harder to get.

Wow, I loved that. Thanks for posting it!

I watched it last night. This morning as I work at my computer I'm listening to my Beatles collection on iTunes. Because, sometimes you just gotta get back to where you once belonged.

I loved the proprietor in the Penny Lane Barber Shop playing with Paul's hair when he sat in the barber chair!

Emma, thanks for that info.

Oh, Alison! Thank you so much for posting this link. Paul is/was my favorite Beatle and "Hey, Jude" my favorite song. If only I should be so lucky to be in a Pub when something like this happens! I enjoyed it so much.

Thanks for posting! I really enjoyed it!

You're welcome, I saw posts about it on Twitter the day it was filmed, many lucky tourists were getting out their phones and uploading video onto Twitter that day :) I was VERY happy to find it on You Tube so quickly, I don't have CBS, so I was wondering how long it would take for me to be able to see it. :) And thank you to those who gave details on how to get tickets for his home's tour. I figured the lady opening the door was a docent of some kind since the home was kept like it used to be and people toured it since it had been his house. She looked like SHE was having a HAPPY day there too :) Imagine going to work day after day for years to give tours of it, and then one day Paul shows up! Very cool. One of the people posting video on Twitter said his tour guide was beyond shocked :) He probably gave those tours a load of times and never expected to see Paul. Liverpool tourism will shoot up, no doubt :) but in a fun way.

I didn't realize that Paul's mom's name was Mary, and the Let It Be song was from a dream with her. I bet millions of people have assumed the Mother Mary line was a religious reference this whole time. Perhaps now people will keep track of their own dreams a little bit more :)

When I was laid off 2 years ago, I had a silver ticket to go see Paul McCartney in Boston (I lived in CT then), but the expenses to get there would be a lot to spend, so I gave the ticket to an acquaintance musician, she lived in Boston, who became my best friend (she did pay me something for it, I tried to sell it with no luck, when the day before the concert came, I offered it to her). She is older than I, and a musician, so she was super thrilled to be there. She was thrilled to see I had posted that You Tube video link on my Facebook too :)
I don't know where else James Corden's career can go, after that. :) He may have reached the TOP :)

My aunt gave me her I Love Paul button from the 1965 Shea stadium concert before I was born (I'm a NYer), I've had it for decades. If I do get to go to London for grad school now that my daughter's married, I'll have to bring it with me just in CASE I can ever see one of his concerts some day. :)

I guess Liverpool history will seem a LOT more current and fun now. :) All we need is Ringo to visit from time to time also. :)

Does anyone know how long it takes to get from London to Liverpool? Which station is the best? If I do go to grad school there, I might want to get out to a sight or two. :)
Thanks,
-Alison

Alison-

Funny you should ask about trains from London to Liverpool. I've just booked my November trip to London and now I'm fiddling with possible plans to go to Liverpool for the National Trust tour of the houses that Harold linked to. Train trips from London Euston Station to Liverpool Lime Street are showing on the National Rail online planner, as from 2 hours 12 minutes with no change to about 2.5 hours with one change (I think at Crewe). Makes a bit of a long day trip, but do-able.

"One of the people posting video on Twitter said his tour guide was beyond shocked :) He probably gave those tours a load of times and never expected to see Paul."

That particular tour guide may have been shocked, but my docent (who was older, and who as a teenager had actually met the Beatles when they were still together) emphasized that Paul and his brother Michael were quite involved in the National Trust's presentation of the house. For instance, the sign out front originally said it was the childhood home of Paul McCartney, and Paul himself asked that it be changed to say it was the home of the McCartney family (complete with all their names). Paul and Michael provided all kinds of details to restore it to the way it looked when they lived there, and Michael's photos from the time are in the house when you visit.

"All we need is Ringo to visit from time to time also."

This same docent talked about some differences between the Beatles. One she emphasized was their latter-day relationship to Liverpool. Paul is still very connected; Ringo couldn't wait to leave, and doesn't want to come back. To be fair, part of this was the circumstances of their upbringing; she explained that Ringo grew up much poorer than the others, and his childhood experiences don't sound like happy ones.

When you visit, there is deliberately some unstructured time at each house, when you get to ask the docent questions. Some obviously know more than others; a friend had a different docent from mine at John's house, and didn't seem to get as much out of his visit there as I did.

"Does anyone know how long it takes to get from London to Liverpool? Which station is the best?"

You've already gotten the answer, but for all the details of trains, use National Rail's website: http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/. Due to some construction, I don't think all trains now are going to Liverpool Lime Street, but are stopping at an outlying station, from where you take a bus to the center.

From Liverpool Lime Street Station, it's about a 10 or 15 minute walk to the Jury's Inn, which is the tour pick-up spot. Either before or after your childhood homes tour, it's a short walk from the Jury's Inn to either the Beatles Story exhibit or the start of the Magical Mystery Tour bus. With some careful planning, if you take an early enough train from London and a late enough train back, you may even be able to do all three in one day (certainly you can do two of them).

While a daytrip to Liverpool is obviously better than not visiting at all, I spent four nights in Liverpool and filled them easily. In addition to other Beatles sights, there's plenty of non-Beatles things to see and do. Here's my trip report (just skip past the Glasgow and Manchester sections, unless of course you're visiting there as well): https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/uk-trip-report-glasgow-manchester-liverpool-in-september-2016

I just watched the part of the video where they visit the house. The docent who greets them is the one I had (who has met Paul before); notice that while she's surprised, she's hardly "beyond shocked."

Wow, that nearly caused me to shed a tear of joy. Thank you.

We are planning a Beatles day trip from London to Liverpool and trying to logistically figure out how to do the National Trust and taxi tour or Magical Mystery Tour. I'm not familiar with public transportation so that makes me a little nervous. Maybe a taxi if it's not too dear. We're coming up from London in the morning and returning in the evening so any advice appreciated.

A lot of interesting and informative posts here. Many thanks.

@ Mike from West Virginia: Between the two, the National Trust tour of the boyhood homes is my first choice. This is the only tour that takes you inside the homes and gives you a great overview of their lives. As soon as you know what date you'll be in Liverpool, book this tour. Most of these tours leave from the Jurys Inn hotel in the center of Liverpool, see https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/beatles-childhood-homes/features/visit-the-beatles-childhood-homes. You can take public transportation from the train station or a cab to this hotel. With the popularity of this video, these tours are going to be swamped, but they are worth it if you leave the Beatles.

Alison,

That was awesome! It brought tears to my eyes. Thanks for posting.

I think I mentioned in an earlier thread that the National Trust tour leaves and returns to the Jury's Inn hotel on the Albert Docks. The Magical Mystery Tour also departs from the Albert Docks, it's about a 5 minute walk away. The Magical Mystery Tour will end near the Cavern on North John Street, so from there Mathew Street and the recreated Cavern are right there. At the Cavern, there's almost always a solo guitar player singing Beatles and Beatles related music. It's about a ten minute walk to the train station from the Cavern area.

With the National Trust tour, ignore the last tour of the day which departs from Speke Hall, that's nowhere near the city centre.

emma and Harold - thanks, and add you two to the list of many “Fifth Beatles” (George Martin, Billy Preston, etc.). I thought Paul had said he’d never been back to that house since he left as a young man, but it’s clearly benefitted from his input all this time. I’d want to sit on the John and sing a couple of lines, just to test the accoustics! Maybe not a possibility, though, unless you’re Sir Paul. I recall John’s lyrics in Happiness is a Warm Gun about the guy donating a soap impression of his wife to the NT after eating it. I figured he disdained the organization back then — but wonder if he had any idea before his tragic killing that his boyhood home would be a national treasure these days. hope everyone with the ‘Pool on their itineraries has a super trip! I’ll add the Beatle boyhood homes to my travel dreams. Thanks again to all.

Thank you, T. As of now our plans are to day trip from London as early in the day as possible, do the National Trust Tour, and then see if we have time for Magical Mystery or taxi tour before returning to London. I'll have to figure out the logistics.

That was great! Thanks Alison!

The last time I toured Paul's house was in early May, before Carpool Karaoke, and the toilet was roped off. I wonder if it'll be open now on the upcoming tours thanks to Paul.

My tip if doing the NT house tours is to do a taxi tour instead of a bus tour afterwards so you can tell the driver to skip the houses you will see/have already seen on the other tour.